The MtGox 500

Graph Notes

Trades are represented as colored dots.
Click on a graph to view a more detailed version with ticks and labels.

Time Period → X-Axis

The data contains trades from 04/01/2011 to 11/30/2013.Trades are positioned along the X axis by date.

Price → Y-Axis

On MtGox, one bitcoin's value has fluctuated from under six cents in 2010 to over $1200 in 2013. That's a 2,000,000% increase from inception to peak.
Graphs are displayed with a logarithmic Y scale to accomodate this wide range of values.
The unit is converted value in Japanese Yen, which was recorded for every trade*.

Volume → Area

The area of each dot is scaled to the total converted value in Yen of the trade.
This tends to make dots larger in the top right area of the graph, where the price is high.
Dots can overlap, so these graphs are not suitable for precise comparisons of trade volume.

Currency → Color

Green: Buying Bitcoin
Red: Selling for US dollars
Blue: Selling for other currencies such as EUR, GBP, or PLN

About this Project

The source data is the leaked private ledger of MtGox, a historically significant Bitcoin exchange. The data provides a fresh perspective on the price discovery of Bitcoin tokens during a period of rapid growth.

To identify the top 500 users, all unique users were ranked by totaling their volume of buy and sell trades in JPY.

The special user TIBANNE_LIMITED_HK is not represented in the MtGox 500 since its trades are not in JPY. You can read a conjecture on the role of this user. The other special user, THK, shows up as #1 in the MtGox 500.

Disclaimer

These graphs were assembled from leaked data acquired via torrent. The integrity of the data was not confirmed.

The source data may have inaccuracies and the graphs are not guaranteed to be correct. There are missing data from both the beginning and end of MtGox's history (see Graph Notes). Duplicate and malformed transactions were present.

A collaboration between Kai Chang, Mary Becica and Stamen Design

In February 2014 MtGox, one of the oldest Bitcoin exchanges, filed for bankruptcy protection. On March 9th a group posted a data leak, which included the trading history of all MtGox users from April 2011 to November 2013. The graphs below explore the trade behaviors of the 500 highest volume MtGox users from the leaked data set. These are the Bitcoin barons, wealthy speculators, dueling algorithms, greater fools, and many more who took bitcoin to the moon.

Meet the Traders

Bitcoin Barons

Barons are characterized by their early start in the market followed by big sells at higher prices. Initial trades with many sells suggest the user mined bitcoin before entering the Gox market.

Greater Fools

The mark of the Greater Fool is a lonely green patch where the price is highest. Some of these may be investment groups encouraged by the Bitcoin Senate Hearings in November 2013.

Dueling Bots

Automated traders build up a large volume by making thousands of small trades. Vertical stripes of sells across a wide price range may also indicate algorithmic activity.

Glitch in the System

User 15 purchases large volumes of bitcoin at seemingly random prices. Why do so many traders sell at low prices to User 15? Why does User 15 buy at astronomically high prices? Are these faulty trades or an algorithm gone mad?